Varvel: John Dewey
by GARY VARVEL
Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”
How do you “fundamentally transform” a nation? Answer: Through education.
As the saying goes, “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will become the philosophy of the government in the next.” Transforming the next generation became the mission of John Dewey, known as the Father of Progressive Education and the fifth man listed in Dave Breese’s book “Seven Men Who Rule the World from the Grave.”
Born in 1859, Dewey believed education was the cure for society’s ills. In his 1897 work “My Pedagogic Creed,” he argued that schools should function as “miniature communities” that would ultimately lead to a more democratic and moral society.
Dewey was heavily influenced by Charles Darwin’s ideas. After earning his doctorate in philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, Dewey joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1904, where he taught philosophy until his death in 1952 at age 92.
Breese wrote, “The early 1900s was the first era in which Darwin and his ideas had come into full flower.” During this time — largely unnoticed by parents — Dewey became a powerful influence in shaping the hearts and minds of young students. His vision was to turn schools into laboratories where social theories, scientific ideas and philosophical hypotheses could be tested on the lives of children.
Dewey was more than a prolific writer; he was a social engineer. He called his philosophy of education “the experimental method.” In practice, it often blurred the line between education and indoctrination. Dewey openly declared, “Schools do have a role — and an important one — in the production of social change.”
But what kind of change did he want?
In 1933, Dewey signed the first “Humanist Manifesto I,” which stated: “There is no God and no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, immutable truth is also dead and buried.”
In other words, no God, no absolute truth, and no permanent moral law.
With an atheistic, socialist, humanist worldview, Dewey saw his mission as preparing America’s future teachers and leaders for a brave new world — a socialist America. Without permission from parents, voters, elections, or legislatures, Dewey and like-minded reformers quietly reshaped the educational system. The emphasis shifted away from the traditional “three Rs” toward psychological and social conditioning.
Dewey’s theories did not go unchallenged. Reinhold Niebuhr, a Christian realist, offered a direct critique in his 1932 book “Moral Man and Immoral Society.” Niebuhr argued that groups — nations, races, and classes — are inherently self-interested and that education alone cannot make them moral.
History soon proved his point. The rise of Nazi Germany demonstrated that a highly educated society can still descend into barbarism. Education alone does not produce virtue; sometimes it simply produces more sophisticated criminals.
America’s Founding Fathers understood the necessity of morality and religion in sustaining liberty.
Our second president, John Adams, warned: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
And our first president, George Washington, declared in his Farewell Address: “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
The Founders themselves were educated in a system that included the Bible. In 1647, Massachusetts passed the Old Deluder Satan Act. The law stated that “that old deluder, Satan” had kept people in ignorance so they could not read the Scriptures. Schools were established so that children would learn to read the Bible.
Many of the Founders believed the Bible had the power to transform both the mind and the soul. Dewey wanted to change that. Was he successful?
Consider this: In May 2025, a survey conducted by the Cato Institute and YouGov found that 62 percent of Americans aged 18–29 say they have a favorable view of socialism, and 34 percent say the same about communism.
Check.
School board meetings across the country are packed with outraged parents protesting Critical Race Theory, pornographic books in school libraries, and controversial gender policies being implemented without parental consent.
Check. Check. And check.
Yes, it appears that Dewey and his ideological heirs did more than reshape the educational system — they reshaped the worldview of a generation.
The writer G. K. Chesterton once observed: “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing; they then become capable of believing in anything.”
Dewey and the other “men who rule the world from the grave” first convinced people there was no God. Once that foundation was removed, their humanistic philosophies rushed in to fill the void.
If America is to endure, the answer will not be found in another social experiment. It will be found in returning to the faith that shaped our nation from the beginning — the faith of the Founding Fathers and the God of the Bible.
Gary Varvel, an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, describes himself as a Christian, conservative, cartoonist and speaker in that order. Varvel was the Indianapolis Star cartoonist for 24 years. His work is syndicated through Creators Syndicate. In 2015, he was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.
Comments...